EXPLORING MY ADOPTED CITY AND BEYOND
There are landmarks in London that do not require discovery; they simply linger in plain view, confident in their ability to draw you in. The Tower Bridge, with its fairy-tale twin towers, needs no introduction, nor do the gleaming golden gates that guard the perimeter of Buckingham Palace. These pillars of English aristocracy are at… Continue reading
London is comprised of 32 boroughs. Each of these contain a multitude of quirky little neighbourhoods and villagelike pockets that often flow seamlessly into the next making it somewhat difficult for visitors to distinguish one spot from the other. Grand architecture snakes harmoniously through the city, echoing the River Thames as it branches out from… Continue reading
Threadbare vintage lace panels, sumptuous Art Deco velvet coats, and old glass jars overflowing with Bakelite buttons in quirky, avant-garde shapes; these are the exquisite delights that awaited me each morning when I walked through the front door of the antique shop where I worked back in my early twenties. Oh, how I loved it!… Continue reading
Unlike the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, the transformation of the seasons in the UK is purely for the locals. Tourists don’t generally make the long trek halfway around the world to watch the last of the autumn leaves drop from the plane trees along the banks of the River Thames, nor do… Continue reading
Borough Market is one of the UK’s longest running food markets and is loved as much by locals as it is by the throngs of visiting tourists keen to soak up a little piece of London’s gastronomic history. It has evolved over the centuries from a wholesale marketplace supplying the greengrocers of south London into… Continue reading
A self guided jaunt through two of London’s prettiest waterfront neighbourhoods – including an interactive map Time 2-4 hours depending on your rhythm and how often you stop. An easy, slow-paced walk on mostly flat, paved terrain. When Dan and I moved to London one of the biggest adjustments for us was navigating our new… Continue reading
“When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!” —Chapter 4, The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Bluish grey ripples of reflected water danced on the branches above their heads as the tiny… Continue reading
There is so much to see and do in Oxford that it is impossible to show you everything in one single post. Therefore, I have decided to share this quintessential English town in two delicious portions. In the first part, we wander around the town, taking in the grandiose architecture, and marveling at the specimens… Continue reading
Practicality is not my middle name. I was named after two flowers – Rose Camelia, and I absolutely live up to my namesake. When I was a little girl my most treasured possession was The Garden Game, an English boardgame about flowers, composting, and plant harvesting. The Garden Game’s locust plagues, or other cruel Acts… Continue reading
There are some things – wonderful, beautiful, and sometimes quite obvious things – that in retrospect, seem so utterly unmissable that we begin to question whether we actually have any vision at all. This is exactly how I felt recently. After almost a year and a half living in London, I finally made the trek… Continue reading